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Archers audience figures
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Message 1.聽
Posted by Leaping Badger (U3587940) on Monday, 3rd January 2011
Tayler, I read a comment recently that the RAJAR figures for The Archers (currently around 5 million) is actually an aggregate figure for a week's episodes, and is for the number of listens to episodes over the week, rather than the number of individuals who listen to the programme. This means an average of around 800,000 listens per episode, which suggests that there are around 800,000 people who listen regularly to The Archers, rather than there being 5 million people who listen.
I'd be very grateful if you'd look in to this and confirm either that the figures do in fact measure 5 million individuals who tune in to The Archers, or that the figure is for 'total listens per week', suggesting that the actual audience figure is nearer 800,000 people.
Many thanks in advance.
'脰' -
Message 2
Posted by Black-fevvered mourning Sparrer (U14335374) on Monday, 3rd January 2011
As a side note to this, the methodology is not given on RAJAR's web site. However, what is given is that the RAJAR diaries (a discredited form of recording that the TV-ratings people have mostly abandoned) are filled in by the quarter-hour segment: it seems that anyone who listened to the news at 7pm and then turned off would show up in exactly the same way as someone who listened to The Archers.
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Message 3
Posted by Leaping Badger (U3587940) on Friday, 7th January 2011
bump
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Message 4
Posted by Tayler Cresswell - Host (U14232848) on Sunday, 9th January 2011
Hi Badge
I'm pretty sure the 5m number refers to people (ie 5m different sets of ears) but I'll see what I can find out for you.
Tayler -
Message 5
Posted by Tayler Cresswell - Host (U14232848) on Sunday, 9th January 2011
Hi again Badge
From this post (, it seems that I'm right. It doesn't mean that 5m people listen to every episode, but that 5m people listen at least once in a prescribed timeframe - ie a week.
"Radio 4 reach this quarter is 10.37 million. That means that 10.37 million people have listened to Radio 4 for at least 15 minutes a week in the last three months." (RAJAR figures come out once a quarter)
Tayler -
Message 6
Posted by Bartsfets (U3639285) on Sunday, 9th January 2011
Tayler - this does make me wonder whether the hundreds - maybe thousands, of us who have stopped listening, not as a protest but in despair, will register at all.
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Message 7
Posted by Tayler Cresswell - Host (U14232848) on Sunday, 9th January 2011
Hi Bartsfets
I think, like BARB (the people who publish TV viewing figures), RAJAR collects data from a representative group of listeners and then uses that to estimate the numbers for the entire country. RAJAR figures aren't the only numbers collected. Podcasts and iPlayer figures will be based on total number of downloads/plays, for example. It all goes to build a fuller picture of listener activity. As do posts here and on the blog - and I'm talking about content and not number of posts. They are being read (and not just by me).
Tayler -
Message 8
Posted by Bartsfets (U3639285) on Sunday, 9th January 2011
Thanks Tayler. I can go to bed - slightly - happier!
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Message 9
Posted by Tayler Cresswell - Host (U14232848) on Sunday, 9th January 2011
Sleep well : )
Tayler -
Message 10
Posted by Seveek (U13636812) on Friday, 28th January 2011
Dear Tayler,
I still do not think the 5 million is correct. I have previously noted that Defra, New Start Magazine, The Plunkett Foundation and others quote 800,000 daily listeners.
Now I read an interview with Gwyneth Williams, the new Radio 4 controller, in the Guardian:
鈥楢nd Sunday nights will be leavened by the introduction of comedy, probably in an early evening slot aiming to exploit the 1 million audience peak the network achieves at 7pm with The Archers.鈥
It does not directly attribute the words to Mrs Williams but it is a product of the interview and can be assumed as such and appears indicate that she told the interviewer that there are up to a million listeners on a Sunday.
It is impossible to believe that the 800,000 on Monday are different people to the 800,000 who listen on Tuesday. I am convinced that the 800,000 daily listeners, accepting assumed errors in the data collection method, is the nearest correct one and that 6 times virtually the same 800,000 a day gives them the 5 million a week figure. But the vast majority will be the same people every day.
And it does not auger well that 鈥淪he bats away questions about the recent 60th anniversary episode of The Archers 鈥 the subject of more than 400 complaints to the 麻豆官网首页入口 about Nigel Pargetter's death and the preceding hype 鈥 and confesses to being a "listener" rather than an "addict" of the soap.鈥
So that鈥檚 alright, then. -
Message 11
Posted by Reggie Trentham (U2746099) on Friday, 28th January 2011
this does make me wonder whether the hundreds - maybe thousands, of us who have stopped listening, not as a protest 聽
I'd like to see some evidence of that. I have a fairly large number of Archers listeners among my friends and relations. As far as I am aware not a single one has given up listening as a result of the 2 Jan episode. Some are quite critical but none sees that as a reason to stop listening.
I think it is too easy to mistake the fevered conversations that go on in DtA as representative of mainstream, non-messageboarding, Archers listeners. -
Message 12
Posted by Spartacus (U38364) on Friday, 28th January 2011
Reggie, I run an Archers messageboard, so the listeners I am exposed to are some of the more "hardcore". I've only heard one or two say they've given up listening completely, but many more saying that they have given up "looking forward" to the programme, and no longer caring if they miss an episode or two. They just pop in to my site see if things have cheered up yet...
I like the Archers, and I still tune in for every episode, but I *hate* what Ms Whitburn did. Not for the death of Nigel, but for the shameless publicity and frankly self-promotion that she managed to piggy-back onto it, making the 60th anniversary all about /her/. I hope she is successful in moving on to a TV soap, as she so obviously wants to, really soon. -
Message 13
Posted by Leaping Badger (U3587940) on Friday, 28th January 2011
I've stopped listening since 2 Jan. I have no desire to listen to the programme as it has now become. It's sad, really.
'脰' -
Message 14
Posted by Reggie Trentham (U2746099) on Friday, 28th January 2011
I *hate* what Ms Whitburn did. Not for the death of Nigel, but for the shameless publicity and frankly self-promotion that she managed to piggy-back onto it, making the 60th anniversary all about /her/.聽
I agree completely, Peet. It wasn't the plot line that was necessarily wrong but the ridiculous hype leading up to it. Not enough reason to stop listening though. -
Message 15
Posted by Tayler Cresswell - Host (U14232848) on Saturday, 29th January 2011
Hi Seveek
As I understand it, the 5m number refers to 5m different listeners. So whilst not everyone listens to every episode, 5m different people listen to The Archers at least once a week.
Tayler -
Message 16
Posted by petal jam (U1466691) on Saturday, 29th January 2011
>>the shameless publicity and frankly self-promotion that she managed to piggy-back onto it
You know Peet, I don't hear it this way - I hear someone who is just not very good at doing the presentational type of interview and who unfortunately comes over as defensive and self-conscious when justifying the thinking behind the programme. In a meeting with other production staff or management she would probably be perceived as being able to argue her point but no more nor less than any other Editor. [Which doesn't mean that I would take the same decisions if the Ambridge job fairy put me in charge of narrative development.]
At one time I watched and listened to a lot of these 'right to reply' slots. Invariably the producer wheeled out behaved like a rabbit caught in the headlights, not sure whether to feel personally attacked or to mount a defence of his or her programme which involved counter-attacking the criticisms. It's easy to say that a spokesperson needs to talk to the listeners' viewpoint, much harder to detach yourself from your work sufficiently to do it. An actor may speak interestingly about their latest film on the tv because they are at least trained to tell their story effectively; an artist, when asked to speak about her or his piece may grunt and say 'it's all in the work - take it or leave it.'
Also I think I saw it suggest somewhere else that all the pre-broadcast coverage had been engineered by VW. Forgive me if i've got you completely wrong, but I find that an over-confident claim. I sincerely doubt whether that's how it happens. -
Message 17
Posted by Spartacus (U38364) on Saturday, 29th January 2011
Well, pj, it's a different way of looking at it and I respect that, but my gut feeling still draws me towards my original statements. For a couple of *months* before the episode in question, VW was popping up in almost every other 麻豆官网首页入口 programme she could squeeze a mention in. I don't think that *all* those shows thought "Oh, the Archers has an anniversary coming up - I wonder who we can ask on to talk about it?"...
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Message 18
Posted by Seveek (U13636812) on Wednesday, 9th February 2011
Dear Tayler,
As I posted before, you and the press are being misled.
I contacted Rajar and a very pleasant lady responded immediately, advising that she was unable to offer much help as subscribers to Rajar pay for their data and so it is up to each station/group to decide whether or not to give out data when requested. It is essentially their data.
She advised me to try the 麻豆官网首页入口 Audio Research Department but I was unable to find their details on the 麻豆官网首页入口 site. So I entered a query on the Complaints system, which has a ten day response time.
I then contacted a gentleman who provides radio programming consultancy and Rajar analysis, special projects, monitoring and content analysis for licence applications, station launches and re-launches, interim management etc. to the industry and he also replied by return.
It is interesting that Rajar and the Consultant replied immediately but the 麻豆官网首页入口, which we pay for, may take 10 days.
The Consultant, who makes his living interpreting the figures, agreed with my view:
鈥淚 quite agree that The Archers attracts a very loyal audience.鈥
鈥淚t is quite reasonable to assume that many of those listening on one day are likely to be listening again the following day. Rajar only provides an average figure for the weekday audience, so there is no way of knowing how the audience varies from one day to the next; especially in view of the nature of Radio 4's schedule.鈥
鈥淚 would, therefore, tend to agree with you in that saying The Archers is listened to 5 million times a week would be correct, but not that 5 million people listen to The Archers. I have found from personal experience that some of the journalists who write such stories, and even some over-enthusiastic press officers, do not understand the difference, and that is where the confusion arises.鈥
As I have posted before, it is impossible, and naive, to believe that there are 800,000 or so different listeners to the Archers each day. A regular listener would be counted six times.
As an aside, the Consultant鈥檚 80 year old mother is a regular listener.
Thank you,
Ian -
Message 19
Posted by Sallyruth (U14589711) on Wednesday, 9th February 2011
That is BRILLIANT, thank you SO much.
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Message 20
Posted by Leaping Badger (U3587940) on Wednesday, 9th February 2011
Thanks, Seveek; that's very interesting. I'd be keen to get clarification on this. Tayler, I'd be really grateful if you'd do some delving into it and try to get a definitive answer.
'脰' -
Message 21
Posted by Tayler Cresswell - Host (U14232848) on Wednesday, 9th February 2011
Hi Seveek
That's really interesting. I'll try and get some clarification and post back when I do.
Tayler -
Message 22
Posted by Tayler Cresswell - Host (U14232848) on Wednesday, 9th February 2011
According to a Telegraph article from last August:
RAJAR figues "measure the number of people listening to a given station or programme for at least five minutes a week."
So that seems to mean that someone is asked if they've listened to The Archers at least once a week. So counted once, not 3,4,5,or 6 times.
I've emailed the team to see if they have any further info on this and will post back.
Tayler -
Message 23
Posted by Spartacus (U38364) on Thursday, 10th February 2011
I don't know if they're affiliated with RAJAR, but I take part in TV/Radio surveys on a regular basis, and they always ask if you have listened to a channel for at least five minutes in a /given/ /day/ before letting you select the programmes you listened to from the previous day's schedules.
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Message 24
Posted by Leaping Badger (U3587940) on Thursday, 10th February 2011
Half-hour slots, according to this 'primer' blog:
Which means that if someone is an avid listener to Front Row, The Archers gets a tick as well because it falls in the 7-7.30 slot (and vice versa, of course).
Tayler, given the amount of confusion around how the figures are derived, and given how news stories around non-essential topics are generally 'researched', I wouldn't put much store in what a newspaper article says: most likely the journalist simply looked up the sources available to us, and we can't find a clear answer even with a lot more searching than a journalist would have time to do. In fact, I wouldn't expect that the Archers team would know the answer for sure: I assume they're simply given the figures quarterly and told 'well done' or 'must try harder'; they might well be labouring under a misapprehension as to what the figures really mean. In fact, I'm not sure how we could find out the answer, other than perhaps an FOI request, which Seveek has done I think.
'脰' -
Message 25
Posted by JoinedPeetsBoard_Smeesues_too (U14519481) on Thursday, 10th February 2011
Leapers - if you look up Rajar on Google you will see what the figures mean:
gives the listening figures for all (?) radio stations in the UK.
Click to their home page from there - other pages too. You can even see the form people fill in.
What is quoted for the Archers is `reach' and that is a defined quantity - the same as Tayler said:
the number of different people who listen to the Archers (for 3 minutes or more) at least once a week
Again you can look that up the def of `reach' on Google. Some of the info is free to everyone and some you can only obtain if you pay.
The data is collected by one of the polling organisations - (Mori?)
THe info is collected by (among others) commercial radio stations who would need it for their advertisers.
THe 800,000 on a Sunday may not be a typical day. Of course it's one of SEVEN broadcasts including Omni.
Sorry to this is a bit garbled - I've not had my brekker yet - how lazy is that!
JPBS -
Message 26
Posted by JoinedPeetsBoard_Smeesues_too (U14519481) on Thursday, 10th February 2011
THe info is collected by (among others) commercial radio stations who would need it for their advertisers.聽
Of course I meant the data is collected FOR the commercial radio stations ..
JPBS -
Message 27
Posted by Tayler Cresswell - Host (U14232848) on Thursday, 10th February 2011
Hello all
Just heard back from Keri who says:
"I can confirm that it absolutely is 5 million separate people, not 5 million 'acts of listening'. Once a listener has recorded that they listen to The Archers in the week in question, they are only counted once for the total weekly reach figure. All programmes that have more than one edition in the week (eg Today, Woman's Hour) are treated the same way."
Thanks all
Tayler -
Message 28
Posted by Scarlett the Harlot (U14540168) on Thursday, 10th February 2011
I cannot believe that 5 million people listen to TA.
The figure of 800,000 sounds much more plausible to me. -
Message 29
Posted by mike (U14258103) on Thursday, 10th February 2011
>I cannot believe that 5 million people listen to TA<
Er, .. why not? -
Message 30
Posted by Scarlett the Harlot (U14540168) on Thursday, 10th February 2011
Because I cannot imagine that it would appeal to that many people. I don't know anyone other than a certain poster on ML that listens to TA other than me.
To put it in context Christ Moyles gets over 8 million listeners but that is a prime time breakfast show that is on for 3 1/2 hours.
TA is on at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. for 12 1/2 minutes and neither slot is prime time listening. -
Message 31
Posted by Seveek (U13636812) on Thursday, 10th February 2011
Dear Tayler,
That is simply not true.
You will tell me next that there are 34,505,000 people listening to the 麻豆官网首页入口 in any week, which is 55% of the total radio audience, making 62,736,363 radio listeners a week as that is the total of the figures produced by Rajar and exceeds the number of adults in the UK.
It is no good quoting the Assistant Editor (Media) of the Telegraph as he would use a press release from the 麻豆官网首页入口 so he is misinterpreting the 麻豆官网首页入口鈥檚 misinformation as he does not understand the Rajar method or what the figures mean which he has been given.
The fundamental point is that the Archers has a loyal and regular number of daily listeners. You might check with Mr Davies whether he accepts the 800,000 daily listeners figure. If he does, then I know he will be able to work out, assuming that he accepts that to be the approximate number of core, regular, daily listeners and says they are only registered once, where the other 4.2 million floating people come from who tune in for 5 minutes per week. 4.2 million, Tayler. And, if 4.2 million only tune in for 5 minutes a week, the 麻豆官网首页入口 surely would not be morally or ethically correct to call them listeners to the Archers.
Or perhaps Mr Davies thinks there are, say, 600,000 regular daily listeners registered once in that week and that 4.4 million other people tune in occasionally. This ludicrous supposition is as ridiculous whatever the figure accepted for the core number of daily listeners. If we do accept, for arguments sake, a core daily 600,000 then another 730,000 once a week people on average are tuning in every day. But then, of course, the daily average would be 1.33 million.
Tayler, you have a first class degree in Communications from Goldsmiths University where you majored in Journalism and TV Audience Studies. You can surely appreciate that you are being given incorrect information.
There will be millions of people without radios in supermarkets and other shops at 7:00 pm this evening, many hundreds of thousands on trains, in pubs, at dinner parties, on computers, working nightshifts in hospitals, factories and offices, tenpin bowling and other sporting fixtures. We have The One Show, The Culture Show, Emmerdale, Channel 4 News, Five News at 7, Hollyoaks, and Top Gear on the main TV programs. Then there are the digital channels and all of the other radio programs. Your stance does not leave many of the over 15 population to be shared amongst these events.
A lot of people of this board have considerable respect for Mr Davies, including me, but you are asking me to accept his assertion over that of a man who makes his living interpreting the Rajar figures for radio companies:
鈥淚t is quite reasonable to assume that many of those listening on one day are likely to be listening again the following day.鈥
鈥淚 would, therefore, tend to agree with you in that saying The Archers is listened to 5 million times a week would be correct, but not that 5 million people listen to The Archers.鈥
The Archers has around 800,000 listeners.
Ian -
Message 32
Posted by JoinedPeetsBoard_Smeesues_too (U14519481) on Thursday, 10th February 2011
That is simply not true.聽
No shes not wrong. Have you looked at the RAJAR web-site? Are all the figures wrong? But commercial organisations *pay* for a more detailed breakdown of these figures - why would they do that if the stats are dodgy? The correct word for the figure is `reach' and that is what the 5million means.
You will tell me next that there are 34,505,000 people listening to the 麻豆官网首页入口 in any week, which is 55% of the total radio audience, making 62,736,363 radio listeners a week as that is the total of the figures produced by Rajar and exceeds the number of adults in the UK.聽
But you haven't allowed for 24 hours in the day have you?
JPBS -
Message 33
Posted by Organoleptic Icon (U11219171) on Friday, 11th February 2011
Tayler - It seems clear from the 麻豆官网首页入口 Blog information on how RAJAR works that the statistics are entirely unable to distinguish between people who listen to the 7pm news then switch off at the first note of Barwick Green and people who listen to TA, because they in fact credit BOTH to BOTH broadcasts. And ditto 2pm news/repeats.
What possible use is that to the 麻豆官网首页入口? Could you please put to VW my question of whether they have ANY statistics on ACTUAL Archers listenership.
Just by fingerspitzengefuhl I find 800,000 credible and 5 million beyond credit. The latter means that well over 10% of the non-infant population listen to it. Less than 10% of people I know do so, and I am sure that my social group is far more inclined to listen to TA than most. -
Message 34
Posted by mike (U14258103) on Friday, 11th February 2011
The claim of 800,000 listeners per episode just isn't credible either because it would mean each listener listens to just one episode and not any others.
As far as we know the number of episodes a listener listens to in the week isn't available so we have now way of knowing what the average number of listeners per episode is, all we know is that it is somewhere in the range 800,000 to 5 million. Just to demonstrate this let's assume that the average number of episodes each listener listens to in a week is 3 then there are 15 million individual "listens" during a week and the average number of listeners per episode is 15 millions divided by 6 or 2.5 millions. It is still reasonable (given these figures) to say the Archers has 5 million listeners, isn't it? -
Message 35
Posted by Organoleptic Icon (U11219171) on Friday, 11th February 2011
Mike - The 800,000 seems to be a daily figure for a quarter hour slot that includes both TA AND a News bulletin. There seems to be no data specific to the programme.
It would be easy and not very expensive to get a polling organisation to survey TA listening. If I could be bothered I might make a public info request to see if they have done so. -
Message 36
Posted by mike (U14258103) on Friday, 11th February 2011
Organoleptic, you seem to missing the point of the explanation of how the RAJAR figures are collected/ processed. People fill in diaries of their listening. Somebody is counted as a listener once they listen to their first episode of the week. The listener count is not increased if that person listens to a later episode that week.
I did ask Keri at the 2001 MB convention how the 麻豆官网首页入口 assessed what listeners thought of the programme. He said that (apart from the RAJAR figures) they just used to read the letters and (after it started) the MB. At that time they had never done a "proper" opinion survey and I don't expect they have since. Perhaps now would be a good time to do one, but to get valid results they will have to get more than 1,000 listeners which will mean approaching about 10,000 randomly selected people which will make it a bit more expensive than an "ordinary" opinion poll. -
Message 37
Posted by Organoleptic Icon (U11219171) on Friday, 11th February 2011
Mike - please re-read the explanation, and look at the illustration.
RAJAR does NOT collect data by programme at all. It collects by timeslot of 15mins. 19:00-19:15 includes BOTH 7pm news AND TA. RAJAR has NO way of knowing if a listener listens to just the news, just TA, or both. -
Message 38
Posted by mike (U14258103) on Friday, 11th February 2011
Yes, I accept this point. It applies to all programmes, but will obviously affect the figures for those that last less than 15 minutes. There is no way of separating out those that listen to TA or Front Row (or both). I have lived with people who usually listened to TA and then switched off Front Row (if I'm by myself I would probably listen to both). I would expect (but of course can't prove) that TA is more popular (and listened to than Front Row).
The point I'm making is that the RAJAR method is structured so that it avoids double counting, i.e. there are 5 million people who listen to at least one half hour slot when TA is one. To argue down to a figure of 800,000 listens from this is just wrong-headedly perverse! This is everything to do with maths and logic, nothing else.
The point I'm making relates to the way listeners to a particular programme are counted. -
Message 39
Posted by Organoleptic Icon (U11219171) on Friday, 11th February 2011
How can RAJAR eliminate double counting when its data are based on time periods not programmes? I hear some at 7pm, some at 2pm, and some on Sunday.
Is there anywhere a 麻豆官网首页入口 report on Archers listenership in clear form?
I have no problem believing that Radio 4 has 10 million discrete listeners per week, through all platforms. I know a lot of people who have the Today prog or PM on their car radios. But I find it very hard to believe that half of them are Archers listeners. Maybe a lot catch the odd snatch? To be called a listener I think requires enough to follow the plots. An omnibus, or at least 3 episodes out of 6? -
Message 40
Posted by mike (U14258103) on Friday, 11th February 2011
I have just been to the RAJAR site and see that the diary is filled in on a 15 minute basis, so it would be possible to distinguish TA listeners from Front Row listeners.
Just speaking personally, if I just listened to the News and switched off at 7.02pm, I wouldn't tick the box for listening 7.00pm to 7.15pm!
But none of this invalidates the point that the claim that TA has 800,000 listeners completely lacks credibility! -
Message 41
Posted by mike (U14258103) on Friday, 11th February 2011
Because when RAJAR has an individual's diary and it sees that that individual has listened to TA once, it doesn't count subsequent listens to TA (at different times) by that individual as increasing the figure for TA listeners! A TA listener is defined as somebody who listens to the programme at least once per week. As most listeners will be listening more than once, the average number of listeners per episode will be higher than 800,000 (but lower than 5 million).
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Message 42
Posted by Organoleptic Icon (U11219171) on Friday, 11th February 2011
Mike - I entirely follow the logic that if TA has 800,000 listeners per episode, and there are 6 episodes per week, the total discrete listeners must be between 800,000 if every listener listens to all 6 episodes, and 4.8million if every listener listens once and only once a week, so that every episode has a wholly new audience.
It seems to me that TA probably has a lot of listeners to all or most episodes, suggesting a figure much closer to 800k than 4.8m.
But how can RAJAR produce these figures? AFAIK it has no knowledge of what programmes are on when, so how can it eliminate 7pm, 2pm, and omnibus duplications? And how does it treat 7pm Sat and 2pm Sat/Sun?
I really rather suspect that the 麻豆官网首页入口 DOES NOT HAVE THE FAINTEST IDEA how many TA listeners there are! If it had any coherent data presumably Tayler would show us? Please. -
Message 43
Posted by mike (U14258103) on Friday, 11th February 2011
>It seems to me that TA probably has a lot of listeners to all or most episodes, suggesting a figure much closer to 800k than 4.8m.<
Organoleptic, you have got this exactly back to front. With the RAJAR method, if all Archers listeners listened to every episode the average listener figure would be 5 million. If each listener listened once, the average figure 800,000.
RAJAR will be asked by 麻豆官网首页入口 how many people listen to WH, TA etc so somebody at RAJAR will buy a Radio Times and the calculation/ processing of the listening figures from the diaries will be quite straight forward. -
Message 44
Posted by JoinedPeetsBoard_Smeesues_too (U14519481) on Friday, 11th February 2011
if all Archers listeners listened to every episode the average listener figure would be 5 million. If each listener listened once, the average figure 800,000.聽
However what unbelievers don't include is that TA is on 12 times per week - ie 6 days twice per day. So if every listener just listened once the average figure would be 400,000
JPBS -
Message 45
Posted by Spartacus (U38364) on Friday, 11th February 2011
13 if you include the omnibus.
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Message 46
Posted by Spartacus (U38364) on Friday, 11th February 2011
Aargh. Ignore my last post. I forgot that the Friday night episode doesn't warrant a repeat of its own.
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Message 47
Posted by Dragonfly (U2223700) on Friday, 11th February 2011
I don't have the slightest difficulty in believing that 4-5 million people in the UK listen to at least a few minutes of The Archers in the course of an average week. My husband and two children are enforced listeners most evenings, which would bump the figures up, for example. Lots of people are driving or pottering about at 2pm/7pm on weekdays or on Sunday mornings, and just don't turn the radio off after the news unless the phone rings or something else more interesting happens. My dad often heard TA when he was driving home in the evenings, and my mum would often have it on in the background when she was working in the kitchen. Neither would describe themselves as TA fans, but both would have shown up in a RAJAR survey.
I don't know how many expats and interested foreigners listen via the internet - tens of thousands, at least, surely? -
Message 48
Posted by Organoleptic Icon (U11219171) on Friday, 11th February 2011
mike - could you please state clearly what you believe to be the known fact.
I had thought it was that the typical audience for a single episode is 800,000. IF that is the case, my sums are correct. -
Message 49
Posted by JoinedPeetsBoard_Smeesues_too (U14519481) on Friday, 11th February 2011
The average audience doesn't really tell us anything definite - unless we know the listening pattern. It does indicate a large audience that is all - giving credence to a `reach' of 5 million.
Of course the 12 episodes per week doesn't cover the whole Archers broadcasts - for there is LA now. Somewhere on the RAJAR page is info on how people listen.
JPBS -
Message 50
Posted by mike (U14258103) on Saturday, 12th February 2011
Yes, JPBS is correct.
I have re-read the whole thread and given the publicly available descriptions of how RAJAR collects its data and the official statement from the 麻豆官网首页入口 (i.e. Keri), Sevek's "consultant" is talking out of his nether regions.
I think that a couple of things which may be muddying the water are:
1. Sunday night where it was mentioned that one million people are listening between 7pm and 7.15pm to TA. For most of the life of TA there was no Sunday episode and although I listen to it now, for many years after it was introduced I didn't tend to listen to the Sunday episode because I would simply forget it was on. Also I would guess that radio listening at the weekend generally follows a different pattern from weekdays. I therefore wouldn't be surpirided if fewer people listen on Sunday compared to weekday evenings.
2. The fact that the programme is repeated at different times. We don't know how many people listen to repeats (although we could work this out if we had access to the RAJAR logs) but let's suppose that nobody listens to repeats then the 5 million reach of the programme could be made up of:
2 millions who listen to the omnibus (but nothing else)
2 millions who listen every weekday night (but only half listen on Sunday) but not at other times
1 million who listen to the lunchtime repeat during the week.
In practice we would expect these figures to be higher because some of us listen to repeats (e.g. I listen weekday eveinings and the omnibus) and lower because not everybody listens to every episode. If these two effects cancel out then the above figures could be how many listen to each episode - but not 800,000!
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